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But first let's talk about something so important to a lot of us the quality of our sleep and i know the topic of sleep divorce has been all over the media lately when couples who still love each other decide to sleep in separate bedrooms because they cannot agree in the conditions of the sleep in their own bedroom i met this incredible couple the jay and james who loved to fall asleep snuggled under the same blanket but the jay was going through perimenopause and she was always waking up feeling super hot in the middle of the night so one morning, she woke up and she was like, What if her comforter had windows?

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Welcome to Catalan de Luz and this solo, very real,

very raw episode.

If you're already successful, if you already have everything you want in life, great love, great career, lots of money in the bank, this episode is probably not for you.

This episode is for those who are going through something horrible, super tough right now, whether it's heartbreak, financial distress, somebody cheated on you, betrayed you, or maybe you lost a loved one.

I am hoping that by the end of this episode, you're going to find the light and the blueprint and the guideline to be able to get through any tough situation.

And this is why I know because I was able to do it.

And if I was able to do it, not being an expert, not having any emotional support whatsoever, I know you can do it too.

And I always like to emphasize: here, I'm Ken on the Luz that although I've been doing this podcast for almost five years now, I am far from an expert.

I'm not an expert in anything.

I just tell you what works for me.

I open up these amazing conversations and all the lessons that I learned, all the mistakes that I made along the way.

And I hope that it can help you and work for you as well.

So, here we go.

Most experts say that the most stressful things in life that someone can go through are the death of a spouse of the closest person to us,

financial distress, right?

Not knowing how you're going to pay your bills, losing your job, freaking out about are you going to be able to buy food, you know, have a roof of your head.

Number three, moving like major, major situations.

And I went through all of these things at the same time.

Not kidding you.

My mom died in 2017.

A year later, Anthony died.

For those of you who know the show, you know, I was married.

I was in a relationship with Anthony for 15 years.

And the more money he made, the more he drank.

He became an alcoholic.

And towards the end of his life, he decided he was going to die.

And once he died, although I inherited everything that we built together for 15 years, I lost it all.

And that's one of the top questions you guys ask me.

And I'm going to answer today.

How did that happen to me?

I lost it all.

I found myself jobless, penniless, no, no income,

nothing, no support, no financial means, no family, by the way, because I don't have any family.

My parents passed away.

The friends ran away like rats because nobody wanted to help.

And I was like, okay, oh my God, what am I going to do?

This is really sink or swim.

And I remember at the time, one of my closest friends said to me, Oh my God, Catherine, you should jump off of your balcony.

We lived in at the Four Seasons in Miami.

Our apartment was on the 58th floor.

And that's what she said to me.

If I were you and I lost everything, I would jump off the balcony.

I don't know how you're going to get out of this situation.

And if you're going through anything similar, I will tell you how I got out of it and built the life of my dreams completely along in just a few years.

Needless to say, this was one of the biggest, toughest lessons in in my entire life.

And although I'm not an attorney, I urge you to listen to what happened to me and go talk to your attorney if you have a similar situation going on.

I'm an immigrant, right?

And I'm a proud American.

I'm a self-made immigrant.

And I was one of the most naive people in the world because I thought I'm in the United States, I'm protected by the laws, nothing can go wrong.

Like most people think,

you write a will.

By the way, this is a $40,000 will $40,000 will that we spend revising when we knew Anthony was going to die so like most people think okay I write a will I tell everything that I want in that will and when I die

that's it except that that's not true because in my case the will was not enforced at all at all if you guys read it like you literally start crying and it this is public information in a family court in in Miami, by the way.

But anyway, when we knew Anthony was going to die, we spent a lot of money and time drafting a very fancy will to make sure everything he wanted was going to happen.

And of course, we used this huge, crazy, expensive attorneys in Miami that he trusted.

He thought, you know, they were on his side.

So before he died, we talked a lot about it.

And he was like, you know, don't worry, nothing's going to happen to you

because we have this will.

But believe it or not, once he passed away,

nothing was enforced.

The courts didn't listen to me, the judge didn't listen to me, and I will tell you in this episode how.

And everything I thought I had, everything I thought I built for 15 years was completely, completely gone.

No joke.

So, this is the first lesson that I learned that I want to tell you guys.

This is really important.

Do not hope and expect

that the system will work for you.

Do not make this mistake.

I don't care who you're married to or if you're not married.

Do not think I'm going to pass away and I'm going to leave a will and everything is going to be fine.

A lot of women out there think I'm going to marry a rich guy and it's going to solve all my problems.

Make sure you have your bank accounts.

Make sure you have your own money.

Make sure you have your independence.

Unfortunately for me, when I met Anthony, I was so young and I was so naive.

And because he he was so controlling, I relinquished my work and everything that I love to do and my dreams and my goals.

And he took over more and more and more and more.

And I obviously, a big part of it was my fault, but I think I was so inexperienced.

I didn't understand anything about laws, about life, about work, about anything.

I really thought I was protected.

I mean, he was a very

strong-willed, big personality type of guy and extremely controlling, like I said.

And I thought I was in good hands.

And as the marriage progressed, and he started drinking more and more and more and became more and more and more abusive, it took me a really long time to figure out that, okay, wait a minute, you are being completely controlled.

You don't have your own bank accounts.

I had one a little bit.

You don't have anything.

There is something wrong here.

You need to take action.

But it literally took me 15 years to realize that that was happening to me.

And I don't want that to happen to any woman out there.

this is why my message is always about women empowerment be independent be independent because if you're independent you can get out you can start your life over you can do whatever it is that you want don't ever depend completely on a man and don't think that the laws and the system will be on your side no matter how much money you have because many times that's not the case In a nutshell, how did that happen?

It's very simple.

I love calling it the simple but diabolical plan.

Basically, when Anthony wrote the will, he appointed two people that he trusted with his life who had been working for him for decades, decades.

We trusted, we consider them family, right?

They took care of our money, they took care of our assets, they took care of a big part of our life.

He trusted them as the executors of the will.

Basically, you say, like, when you pass away, those people are going to go and divide the assets and take care of everything and go to the judge and etc.

Except that those executors, um, one of them said, I don't want to have nothing to do with this shit, and he left.

And the other one was a big snake that we had been growing under our own

roof,

so to speak, for decades.

Anthony thought she was his confidant, best friend, CFO of his companies, but she decided with someone else that I cannot name here that I did not deserve to inherit everything that I built with my husband, that they were going to take over the company and they were going to keep all our assets.

And they devised the most simple, brilliant plan ever.

Basically, she got this guy

and she made him CEO of the company when Anthony was dying.

They did a bunch of actions that took me two years to find all the evidence.

And they started paying themselves hundreds of thousands of dollars.

They put all their families on payroll and they basically started draining the company.

Think of an airplane with a lot of fuel and you start taking the fuel down, down, down to explodes in the mountain.

That's what they did with our company.

They basically paid themselves a lot of money, closed all the offices, fired all employees and just kept everything.

To this day, I don't know where our cars went.

I don't know where our personal assets went.

I don't know where anything went because unfortunately, it doesn't matter how much I kicked and screamed and begged the judge and family court to listen to me and tell her, look, this is what they're doing to my assets.

It took me a way more than a year to find the evidence and convince this 70-something-year-old judge to actually listen to me.

By the time she was like, oh my God,

this is really crazy.

This is really happening.

These people put their families on payroll.

Yes, they are destroying this company.

It was already too late.

All the money was gone.

They literally paid themselves millions and millions of dollars.

They took a million-dollar loan in the bank with forged signatures.

And nowadays I have everything, but it took me a really long time to find all of that.

And like I said, it doesn't matter how much I kicked and bagged and screamed.

I filed police reports for my personal stuff.

Crazy long story.

Nobody ever helped me.

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Of course, I know in times of severe stress, we have a tendency of just wanting to be under the covers, right?

Hide and cry and

you basically just give up on everything for a while.

But this is the thing.

It just makes everything worse.

And I have a phrase that is tattooed in my head that I never forget.

If you feed the problems, the problems grow.

And that's why most people can get out of difficult situations.

And if you start feeding the solutions, before you know it, the solutions are growing.

In my case, most people have a support system, somebody they can count on.

In my case, I didn't.

I was literally by myself.

And this is what triggered me.

As I was going through all of these things, I remember a friend of mine, someone that was really close to me, said, oh my God, Catherine, if I were you, I would jump off of the balcony.

Because at the time, we had homes in the East Coast and West Coast.

We were in the East Coast in Miami, where Anthony's company's headquarters were, and our apartment at the Four Seasons residences there were on the 58th floor.

And I remember this person said to me, Oh my god, what are you gonna do?

You're broke, you don't have any money, you don't have anything.

I would just jump if I were you.

And that there, I remember sitting and looking out the window, like, Wow, you know what?

I love life too much.

Regardless of all this horrific tragedy that has been happening to me, I love life.

I don't want to end up like my mom, like Anthony, drinking to death.

I don't want to end my life on a bad note.

Guess what?

I'm going to swim.

I'm going to give it a go.

So I started writing on a piece of paper, whatever it was that I could think of that could be a positive in my situation.

So the first thing I wrote down, I remember was like, okay, for 15 years, you were in such an abusive marriage.

My dog is here behind me.

You were in such an abusive marriage.

You were barely allowed to talk.

You were barely allowed to speak, to work, to do whatever you wanted to do.

This is the good news.

Now I can speak up.

Now I can talk.

I can do whatever I want.

So that was the first thing.

So, whatever it is that you're going through, think in a similar way, right?

What is the silver lining?

Every situation has a silver lining.

Find your silver lining and write it on a piece of paper and start from there.

I have heard several extremely successful entrepreneurs that I admire and follow on social media, such as, for example, Hormozy,

say that very few people get very successful without going through some major adversity in their lives.

And I completely agree.

It's in types of severe, severe stress that we find out what we are made of.

It was like that for me, and Ener is like that for a lot of people.

Unfortunately, most people give up on themselves.

Most people die frustrated.

If you go to the cemetery, it's packed with dreams that went down with the person that died.

So it's really up to us if you're going to disqualify yourself from life.

Oh, I'm going to, oh, he dumped me.

He cheated on me.

He divorced me.

My boss fired me.

Whatever it is that is going on in your life, it's up to you if you're going to let that define the rest of your life or if you're going to say, you know what?

I'm going to transform this into something a million times better for myself.

My decision for myself was that I was going gonna die trying, that I was gonna speak up, that I was going to encourage women to be empowered and financially independent and never go through what I went through.

I was going to try to make my dreams come true and do absolutely everything that I love doing that I wasn't allowed to do during my marriage.

And that kept me going because I wasn't allowed to grieve.

I wasn't allowed to just sit at home and do nothing because I needed to work.

I needed to support myself and my dogs.

So I had to keep going.

And how do you keep going when you're in so much pain inside?

You have to find pinpoints, like tiny little points at the end of your tunnel that will keep you going towards that.

If not, of course, you know, it's human nature.

You're going to get so depressed.

You're going to feel so defeated that you're going to be like, okay, that's it.

So find your tiny little silver lining find that tiny point of light at the end of your tunnel that encourages you to keep going and not give up on yourself another big lesson that i learned that i want to share with you guys and this is a really sad one is that

obviously most people will not root for you most people will not be happy for us on the contrary i always use this phrase they buy popcorn and they sit in the front row to watch the misery Typical, typical cliché.

When I was a millionaire, I had so many homes.

I had a mansion in Las Vegas.

I had this apartment of the Four Seasons sisters in Miami, I had yachts and trips and I shared everything with my friends, my closest friends.

I had a best friend from since before college, we called each other sisters.

My video about it went viral on TikTok because she was the closest thing in the world to me, the only reference I had left in terms of having a family.

And when I needed her help, when I was desperate, desperate to be able to rent an apartment and start my life over, she blocked me.

she blocked me because she didn't want to deal with me she didn't want to deal with my pain despite the fact that for decades i paid for her vacations for her kids i was at her parents funeral i was always always there for her spent a fortune on her gave her the most lavish gifts i did everything for this woman that you could dream of i really considered her my sister and that was one of the most painful things that ever happened to me but it made made me realize most people will not be there for you when you need them.

They will be there for you if they're partying in your mansion, they're partying at your house, if everything is great.

But if you need a favor, most people will run away like rats.

What's the silver lining of this lesson?

It's that we have to be resilient for ourselves.

Nowadays, after this horrible experience with this friend a few years ago, I cried and I cried and I cried.

And then I picked myself up by the bootstraps and I was like, you know what?

I'm going to have to be resilient for myself.

And if I need help, I do paid help.

If I need help with my dogs, if I need help with anything, I pay someone to do it because then you know they're doing a good job.

But hoping that your friends or even your family sometimes is going to be right there for you every step of the way, unfortunately, many times that's not going to be true.

And it's not because they don't like you or they don't approve of what you're doing.

It's very likely their own limitations.

And of course, if you ask for money, many times people don't want to help you when it comes to asking for money.

But we need to be resilient in our own right.

Cannot count on anybody when you're rebuilding.

You just need to go and do your own thing.

So as I started rebuilding my life and doing my thing, I moved back to California.

I'm like, you know, I might as well.

I'm broke.

I'm alone.

I have to start over.

I'm going to go to my happy place.

My happiest place in the world is Beverly Hills.

And again, the frenemies were like, oh my God, you should go live in the suburbs.

Who do you think you are?

Beverly Hills is one of the most expensive zip codes in the world.

Are you crazy?

But this is how I think.

And to me, it always works.

I use the upgrade method.

I never use the downgrade method.

Most people use the downgrade method.

So if they're broke or if they don't make enough money, they move like three hours away from work to the suburbs.

They sell their car and they take the bus and they buy junk food because they don't want to eat healthy.

So, as you're downgrading your life, very, very likely that's where you're going to stay.

The more you downgrade, the more you get used to it.

It's going to determine your social circle, it's going to determine your social life, it's going to determine your goals for yourself.

And you can look around.

Most people, that's where they stay.

For me,

in my biggest times of despair, I'm like, where do I want to to go?

And I always look up.

I want to live in Beverly Hills, period.

I want to be wealthy again.

I want to give my dogs and myself an amazing life.

I love the weather there.

I love the lifestyle.

I always surround myself with people that are way more successful than me.

I try to interview them, I try to be friends with them, I try to do business with them.

Why in the world am I going to put myself in the shittiest suburb, in a shitty apartment, surrounded with unemployed people, alcoholics, drunks, complainers, people that gave up on themselves.

I don't want to be there.

So, I have the upgrade mentality.

Push yourself forward.

Instead of saying, I cannot afford this, I cannot do this.

Anything, whatever it is that's going on, you have to say, How do I afford that?

How do I do that?

How do I get a better job?

How do I get a better relationship?

How do I meet better people?

How do I rebuild my life better?

How do I make more money?

And it's usually in the places where people are already doing that.

So think carefully where you are in your life and where you are putting yourself before making these decisions.

And no matter what it is that we decide to do, no matter what it is, like in my case, right, I decided I'm going to move to Beverly Hills.

I'm going to do a super successful podcast.

I'm going to empower women worldwide to go after their dreams.

I want to prove to them that it's never too late, that this age bullshit is total bullshit.

life doesn't come with a guidebook of things you need to achieve and at a certain age it's a completely completely different and unique experience for every single one of us and it's never ever ever too late to do whatever the hell it is that you want to do as long as we're alive and healthy go for it so i decided all of these things And I just went and did it.

Oh my God.

Of course, I got every criticism in the world you guys can think of.

I've heard everything.

What makes you think you're going to do a podcast you have a funky accent nobody's going to listen to it nobody's going to believe you you're never going to be able to book a great guest this is such a joke don't waste your time get a nine to five my number one phrase that i despise the most in my life job security job security get a job get a job it's security the the translation to that is

Give up on your dreams because basically you're making somebody else rich and you're going there and getting a paycheck every Friday because you're too freaking afraid to go after your own dreams.

So I don't like that.

I would never date somebody that just wants job security.

We should all be going for different things.

Of course, if you have a job that you love, love, love, that you do for that, great.

But staying stuck in a job that you hate for security, huge risk of a life.

So people are going to have something to say about you, no matter what it is you do.

And one of the biggest lessons we can all learn is you have to learn how to ignore it.

You have to follow your instincts.

As long as it makes you happy, just freaking go do it.

Because if you're waiting for everybody else's approval, you are constantly, constantly, constantly going to end up frustrated.

It really doesn't matter if nobody approves of whatever your dream is.

And the more Delulu your dream is, the craziest the dream is, probably means the more you want it.

Like with me, I really wanted to get back to acting.

I wanted to tell stories.

I wanted to be in front of the camera.

I wanted to produce all the things that I was never allowed to even mention during my marriage.

And now I'm like, you know, that's the good news.

That's the great silver lining about being free and being single.

I can do whatever the hell I want.

And you can too.

And speaking of relationships, this is what I want to say.

And again, these are my lessons and I hope they help you.

There are media experts, coaches, blah, blah, blah out there.

This is what you do.

This is what you don't do.

Text, don't text.

No, no, no.

This is how you make a guy call you.

I would say toss all that shit in the trash because it's such bullshit.

Why?

Very, very, very simple.

Relationships are extremely simple.

We make them difficult because we decide we want to make them difficult.

How so?

If two people want to be together, that's it.

You don't have to play games.

You don't have to guess.

You don't have to create little tactics.

Oh, should I call?

Should I not call?

Should I text?

Should I not text?

Is he personal?

No, if a guy wants you, if this man is your man, if this woman is your woman, you're going to know exactly that they want you.

They will communicate.

They will make plans with you.

They will be around you.

It's really that simple.

There is nothing else.

All this bullshit, like, should I withhold sex?

Should I not withhold sex?

Should I text first?

Should I not text?

Oh my God, he said he's too busy.

Bang!

Red flag, one of the biggest red flags in the world.

Too busy.

The end of that phrase is too busy for you.

Nobody in the world is too busy for someone they want to be with.

Nobody.

You can be a freaking doctor at ER.

You can be a gazillionaire running six, seven, ten million businesses.

Everybody takes a bathroom break, a coffee break, a lunch break, goes to sleep, wakes up.

If they want to be with you, they will let you know.

They're gonna text you they're gonna say I want you my wife I don't want to lose you it's really really that simple I made the mistake that millions of women or men people make every day I tried and I wondered and all this bullshit until I finally realized a good relationship is effortless there is no game you don't need to memorize any rules it works for both people it's a two-way street one person comes this way, the other person comes that way, and they both want to be together.

And then you build from there.

That's it.

If someone's not texting you,

it doesn't matter.

Move on.

Somebody ghosted you.

Doesn't matter why.

Move on.

If they're too busy, it doesn't matter why.

Move on.

They are not for you.

Your person will never keep you guessing and wondering and anxious and in doubt or suspicious.

None of that.

None of that.

In the meantime, we need to be extremely happy with ourselves.

Self-love.

It's one of the most beautiful lessons ever.

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I talk a lot about Carondoz, on Carandoz, about self-love, because I think it's one of the biggest lessons and toughest lessons, unfortunately.

We have so much love to give to other people, but when it comes to ourselves, we always put ourselves last, right?

I did that to myself for a long time.

But if you master really, in all honesty, looking at yourself in the mirror in the morning and saying, you know what, I love you, you're amazing, you're doing your very best.

Keep going, keep pushing.

It's not about being perfect physically or mentally, it's about being the very best version you can be of you.

And if you master that, knowing your boundaries, knowing what's important to you, knowing what you will never accept again in a relationship, knowing what your needs are, being happy in your own universe with your own projects, work, hobbies, lifestyle.

When you have all of that mastered, you are going to be a much stronger, much better person to find and attract the right partner for you.

But until we master that, we keep making mistakes.

Because running after someone, begging, letting someone cheat and give them a chance to cheat again, all this bullshit is obviously self-inflicted pain because a person that fully, fully loves themselves, you're like, you know what, dude, I'm never gonna put up with this shit again.

Now, today, me, this Catherine, is not a Catherine that was abused for 15 years, that was called names for 15 years, and allowed it to go on and on and on and on.

I would never allow a man to disrespect me, not once.

And if they did once, that would be the end of it.

I know my worth, I know my value, I know what I want in a partner.

And it was a journey to get here, but it's something like kind of like working out, right?

You practice every day.

You do small kinds of self-love for yourself every day.

Example: work out, walk on the sunshine, buy a little outfit here and there, get your nails or hair done, makeup, treat yourself to something delicious you love on the weekend.

You know, look at yourself in the mirror and say, wow, what a good long way you came.

You know, pay yourself in the back, write a diary,

pick a side gig or a hobby that you've been wanting to do and try out.

Put yourself first.

It's not selfish, it's self-preservation, and it's so important for everything else in our lives to come together for sure.

If you learn how to be completely happy on your own, I promise you, everything else in your life is just going to flow so much better.

And it's sad that so many women are still afraid of being alone.

And it's okay.

It's completely okay.

It's better than being with the wrong person 1 million percent.

And I want to say that lately, oh my God, I see so many girls on social media.

The other day I saw this writer, she's 29 years old, and she was like, oh, dating is dead.

Nobody wants anything.

Nobody takes anything seriously.

The other one said, oh, I'm going to be single forever.

Listen, if you decide everybody out there is horrible, you're never going to find love.

If you decide all this drama in your head, that becomes your reality.

Remember, if you're thinking negative thoughts and you're like, oh, oh, men are men, there are assholes.

Oh, man, on dating ads, are players.

Nobody wants to date.

That is such a big, ridiculous generalization.

Yes, of course, there are a lot of players out there.

There's a lot of BS.

Finding the right person for you on dating apps or otherwise is like finding a diamond in the sand.

But there are tons and tons and tons of amazing, wonderful, sweet, kind, caring, loving people out there that want to find the right partner for them.

So, if you give up on love or if you have this mentality, like, oh, dating is so horrible, it sucks,

that's the energy you're attracting.

That becomes your reality.

So, be careful.

Every time I see somebody being really negative on their social media account, first of all, I never follow them because I don't want that crap in my life.

I just want like total high energy and positivity.

But usually it's an issue they have with themselves.

And if they're a writer or an influencer, whatever it is, a dating coach, of course, they're transmitting it to their audience because they want to share the misery.

So don't get caught on that.

Whatever it is, I don't care.

Somebody cheated on you.

Like, my, I have this neighbor, he's so good looking, he's so kind, he's so nice.

And he found out months ago that his wife was cheating on him.

Of course, that's a huge blow, right?

Talk about heartbreak.

But he's like to this day, since February, months later, he's so like,

I can trust my guard is up.

I don't know if I can love again.

And I said to him, listen, don't let this bitch win.

If you give up on love, if you let her ruin your life, basically you're saying, congratulations, you are so great, you ruined love for me forever.

Don't do that.

If you're going through something similar, the best revenge is to find an even bigger love, have better sex, a more amazing relationship than before.

So whatever it is that somebody did wrong to you oh my god i have a million stories to tell hence the podcast i've shared so many i've been cheated on i've been lied to i trusted and i've been disappointed and deceived but i never give up on love no way because if you do that all these assholes that came before win so don't let that happen to you and beware of negativity out there because that's the person's own issue don't let that be your issue.

Please remember: no matter what it is that happened in your past, somebody lied to you, cheated on you, betrayed you.

We've all been there, right?

I have a gazillion stories that I share.

That does not defy your next relationship.

The right person for you will not do any of these things.

Love is kind, love is calm, love is patient, it's soothing, it's not chaotic, it's not suspicious, it's not insecure.

All of these things are not love.

So never, ever give up on love.

Please, that's a huge mistake, and I don't want you to do that.

Keep going.

Your person is out there trying to find you as much as you're trying to find them.

So please don't give up.

And in terms of being successful in anything that you want to do, this is what I want to say.

Beware of the word easy, right?

So many people on social media are like, oh, it's so easy.

I make 10K a month.

It's so easy.

I do this.

I do that.

I do that.

I do that.

And AI, any idea.

Please beware.

Nothing is easy when it comes to being successful.

It's an uphill battle.

I don't care how fantastic AI is, which it is, but it will not replace hard work and dedication.

Whatever it is that you want to do.

So let's say I hear this all of the, I want to start a podcast.

How do I make money?

And I start laughing because you're not going to start yapping and making money.

You got to show up, show up, show up, show up consistency and tons and tons and tons of hard work.

To this day, I'm not where I want to be yet.

I'm not a millionaire.

I do well for myself, but I have a long ways to go.

But I push myself and I push myself.

I am willing to show up.

15 hours a day, 16 hours a day, seven days a week.

I am willing to show up for my businesses and my my projects.

So, you need to make a decision for yourself.

How successful do you want to be?

Even if it's a side gig, whatever it is that you want to be, be aware of the word easy.

You want to be successful, like being an influencer, you're not going to grow an audience overnight.

Keep showing up, keep putting whatever it is that you do out there.

Can you do it?

Of course.

Is AI making things easier?

Yes, they are, but don't let it replace your brain, your personality, whatever it is that you do that is very unique to you, and nobody else does the same.

Can you do it?

Yes, but hard work is really what pays off if you want to be successful.

So don't give up.

If you're not making enough money in your job when it's 5 p.m., don't crack a beer and potato chips open and sit on the couch and watch Netflix.

Work on your side gig.

Weekends, same thing.

Maybe you take the morning off, but in the afternoon, work on your side gig, you know?

Think about how you want to manage your time and your life.

But everybody everybody that becomes successful and people ask me how did you do it how did you do I'm like dude it's 1 million percent hard work and the people around me know I work non-stop because to me reaching my goals is important so you need to decide what it is that you want to do put in the hours put in the work there is no shortcut

And last but not least, I would like to say something that really breaks my heart.

Now, because of social media,

people are hating on each other so much.

I never use the word hate in my life.

I think it's a very strong word with horrible energy.

I never use this word.

And I do see a lot of hate out there.

Like somebody sees a post that they don't like, instead of moving on, they leave a trashy message.

They call each other names.

When I see women criticizing all the women, like, oh my God, it breaks my heart in a million pieces.

It's hard enough being an entrepreneur.

It's hard enough being a woman doing anything.

from the get-go.

We got to prove ourselves harder than any man.

This is just my reality.

It's how I see it.

So if you see another woman out there, there is room for all of us.

There is space.

So anybody that does something, there is going to be competition, right, at what you do.

But if you're good at what you do and you're unique at what you do, you're going to find your niche.

You're going to find your audience.

But if you see somebody out there doing something, don't hate on that.

If you don't like it, if it's social media, there's billions of accounts.

Move on.

Follow someone you like.

If it's a podcast, if you don't like this one, listen to the other one that you like.

If it's something on TV that you watch that bothers you, political crap, right?

All these fights, people being murdered because of politics, change the channel.

I think we need to be kinder and more peaceful towards each other and agree to disagree.

If I see something I don't like, I move on and I save my energy to stuff I do like.

I hope this inspires you to go out there, live your best life, because tomorrow is not promised.

I cannot stand when people say, I'm not ready.

I don't feel ready.

You don't feel ready for what?

Ready is not a feeling.

Ready is an action that you take, that you're like, you know what?

I'm going to go for it.

The future is not promised to any one of us.

And the faster we realize that, the more we are grateful for every single day and every single moment and every single opportunity we have in our lives, the faster we are going to move forward with everything.

So stop thinking, stop overanalyzing.

Go out there and make your dreams come true.

I love you so much.

And I'll see you next week.

Be safe out there.

And if you like the podcast, share with your friends so we can keep going.

Thank you so much.

You guys are amazing.

You're juggling a lot.

Full-time job, side hustle, maybe a family.

And now you're thinking about grad school?

That's not crazy.

That's ambitious.

At American Public University, we respect the hustle and we're built for it.

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